Grantham Amplification Fund

The Grantham Amplification Fund is aimed at providing initial seed funds to develop research, knowledge exchange and potential start-up projects that have a strong cross-disciplinary sustainability focus and propose practical solutions to complex problems. 

Successful applicants will be awarded funding of anything between £1,000 and £75,000 across two schemes, which have different application criteria. Our expectation is that a successful conclusion will lead to a much larger 3rd party funding, or a significant real world impact amplifying the effect of the donation from the Grantham Foundation in building a sustainable future.

Who can apply?

The fund is available to any academics, research staff or professional service members at the University of Sheffield. Please note, the Principal Investigator has to be from the University of Sheffield but other collaborators on the project can be from other institutions.

Project applications should evidence meaningful interdisciplinarity  as a core focus, involving academic and  non-academic stakeholders where appropriate. The application should clearly demonstrate how this funding will deliver significant impact, attract further investment or create new knowledge that otherwise would not be possible. 

Funding criteria 

The funding award can be used as part of a wider grant application where permissible as match funding where permitted by the ultimate funder, contribute to a larger project budget or to fund a project in its entirety. Applicants should detail how this money will deliver a wider benefit, either through its part in a larger grant award or the effect of the research in terms of deliverable, demonstrable planetary or societal benefits.

The funding can be used to cover research costs such as arranging of meetings, travel costs, and associated items, and 3rd party revenue costs such as specialist licences for software or databases. Capital costs, such as specialist equipment, may be exceptionally considered on a case by case basis, but the applicant must show a wider benefit to the research community of the procurement of equipment. Rental, reuse or repurposing will always be preferred to the purchase of new. 

The awards are not intended to be used as bridging funds, stipend top ups or to extend contracts of staff on grants close to completion.  

We would not normally fund air travel where there were rail alternatives, and we will not fund projects associated directly with the tobacco or arms industries and will only consider the oil and gas sector where decarbonisation and defossilisation is the explicit goal. Priority will be given to those who have not been awarded monies from this fund previously.

Funding Stipulations

The recipients will be required to acknowledge the support of the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures in any papers produced from the work and must submit a report detailing the project progress for use in the Grantham Centre annual report in January of each year of the project's duration. A separate financial report will be required to track the spend against the award on a quarterly basis in the first 12 months.

Recipients will also be required to work with our Communications Officer to create some promotional materials about the project.

Timeframe

Applications are welcome at any time, Scheme 1 funding requests will be assessed on a rolling basis, Scheme 2 at pre determined intervals as shown in the table below 
Applicants must detail any time constraints in their application.
 

Eligible costs:

• Directly incurred staff time (e.g. research assistant, PDRA, technician, administrator time)
• Directly allocated staff costs by exception
• Travel and subsistence costs
• Market analysis
• Prototyping
• Access to facilities
• Specialist support by 3rd parties
• Equipment (can include specialist software / hardware, excludes laptops)

Ineligible costs:

• Estates and indirect costs
• All projects will be assessed value for money
   

How to apply

The table below outlines the two schemes of funding available. Once you have identified the most suitable funding for your project, click the 'apply here' button in the relevant column and fill in the Google form.

If you have any questions or require more information, please contact grantham@sheffield.ac.uk